Working From Home

Wired recently ran an article on the benefits of working from home, and it's triggered a serious conversation on several blogs. Something to reconsider: the assumption that working from home is always greener than schlepping to an office.

Treehugger has a guide to working from from home, complete with a buying guide for all the stuff you'll need for your new green office. (And no, they're not being ironic.) Another post celebrates the benefits of working from home: the freedom, the community afforded by Skype, the flexibility. If you're driving to work, it probably would be better to stay at home and spare the air the carbon dioxide. Wired suggests companies simply ditch the office. But if you are walking or taking public transportation to the office, and if your home would otherwise be unoccupied, with the thermostat turned down and the lights turned off, then the math gets a bit more fuzzy.

Our unverified suspicion is that the demand for a spacious and pleasant home office is at least one of the factors driving the square footage of new houses through the roof, a trend that spreads new development over greater areas, which, in turn, increases commutes and makes public transportation less feasible.

Where do you come down on working from home? Is it as great as Wired claims?

Oh, and this post? It was written from the easy chair in the corner of the living room.